Browsing by Author "Mekonnen, Endale Sebsebe"

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    Conquering evil : engaging violence from the perspective of Paul’s letter to the Romans
    (African Sun Media, 2020) Mekonnen, Endale Sebsebe
    The scholarly definition of violence has created conceptual complexity across disciplines. It is not possible to deal with all proposed definitions of violence in this brief chapter and therefore it will only focus on a number of interdisciplinary definitions which might contribute as a conceptual framework for understanding Paul’s letter to the Romans’ view of violence.
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    The Torah and community formation : a comparative study of Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40
    (2017-03) Mekonnen, Endale Sebsebe; Punt, Jeremy; Nel, Marius Johannes; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Previous studies on Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40 have indicated the centrality of love therein while downplaying the role of the Law in the two documents. These studies also did not consider the role of Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40 within the overall arguments of the two books and in respect to their specific communities of Jesus followers. To date, there has also not been a study specifically devoted to comparing these two texts in order to investigate the role of the Law in their different communities of Jesus followers. This research aims to fill this lacuna in New Testament studies. This study analyses the respective rhetorical units in Romans and Matthew in order to examine the role of the Law in the identity formation process of the Jesus followers as they saw it. It attempts to answer two specific research questions: (1) What is the role of the summary of the Law in Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40? (2) What are Paul’s and Matthew’s positions in regard to the role of the Law according to the letter to the Romans and the Gospel of Matthew? This study utilised the socio-rhetorical method developed by Vernon Robbins. However, only two aspects of his multidisciplinary approach, namely the study of the inner- and the intertexture are used. A text-focused hermeneutical approach is employed due to the length of the respective books and the complexity of the issues they raise. The argumentative texture of Romans 13:8-14 focusses on the underlying assumptions of the argument, the presupposed audience and the relationship between the Law and love. The study of Matthew 22:34-40 investigated the repetitive texture, the topical progression of νομός and ἁγάπη, the narrative pattern, and the opening, middle and closing argumentative texture of Matthew 22:34-40. The intertextual study investigated the intertexture of Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40 to the Hebrew Bible, LXX, and Second Temple Jewish and Greco-Roman literature. The texts were also compared to discern the convergence and divergence of the two books (Romans and Matthew) on specific topics. Finally, the role of Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40 was investigated and analysed. The research findings on Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40 is that for Jesus followers, Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 22:34-40 present the commandments of the Law under the name of love to shape their perceptible identity. To love God or one’s neighbour means ultimately to obey the commandments of the Law. It is the commandments of the Law that are actually practised under the name of love, for love is avoiding evil and doing good as prescribed in the commandments of the Law. Furthermore, the research concluded that the Gospel of Matthew is not an anti-Pauline text, instead the two texts converge in important aspects of the Law while the divergence is accounted for in their specific genre and concern.